Perceptions of the Prospective Teachers Regarding the Opinion Development Technique

The opinion development technique is one of the learner centered teaching methods. In the study, it has been aimed at identifying the metaphorical perceptions of the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique. The case study design has been used in the study. 77 prospective teachers have taken place in the study group. The metaphors of the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique have been identified by a semi-structured questionnaire. The data has been analyzed through content analysis. 65 valid metaphors have been produced by the prospective teachers. Chameleon is the most repeated metaphor. Tree, sea, fingers of one hand, democracy, plane and war has followed it. Metaphors have been classed in 8 categories. These categories are dissimilarity (f: 26), change (f: 19), variety (f: 11), interaction (f: 6), integrity and comprehensiveness (f: 5), eternity (f: 4), freedom (f: 4) and sharing (f: 2). According to the results of the study, perceptions of the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique are positive. The study results suggest that opinion development technique can be effective to develop 21st century skills such as invention, flexibility and adaptation and critical thinking. Opinion development technique can be used at the teacher training institutions more widely because it contributes various skills to develop especially the 21st century skills. Studies can be carried out to identify the metaphorical perceptions of the prospective teachers about various methods and techniques.


Introduction
Teaching methods and techniques have a significant effect on achievement of an education program to reach its objectives, and the learning-teaching process to be effective is related to the selection of the suitable teaching methods and techniques (Demirel, 2012;Ocak, Ocak, Yılmaz & Mergen;. It is known that teaching which is done by techniques and method that puts students on center and adds them into learning process has effects to realize effective learning (Duman, 2018). One of the techniques that can be assumed among the student centered methods and techniques is the opinion development technique. The opinion development technique is a discussion technique that can be used to develop the opinions of the students about teaching the subjects including specific contradictions and manners (Gözütok, 2007;Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu, 2015).
In life, particularly in social fields and even in physical sciences, there are subjects including oppositions and contradictions. Sometimes, the subject itself and sometimes the suggested ways for solving the problem can contradict with themselves. The ones defending the different opinions have causes on this issue. The ones defending the same opinion may have different causes to defend this opinion. In this case, it is essential to be a democratic society that everybody defend his/her opinion, respect different opinions and change the opinions if it is wished (Gözütok, 2007). Opinion development technique can be an important tool in achieving these values and manners. Nevertheless, it is aimed at creating positive changes in the values and manners of the learners with the opinion development technique (Erginer, 2015;Ocak, 2012). It maintains the students to develop, change their current opinions or to have a new opinion (Taşpınar, 2012). The subjects to be dealt with must include the opposite view-points to be considered valid (Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu, 2015). The most important characteristic of the technique is the necessity not to go up against the ones bringing forward an idea, but only to go up against their ideas during the discussion of the opinions. Adequate evidence and justification is asked for defending the opinions (Erginer, 2015).
Opinion development and discussion techniques are sometimes confused with each other. However there are significant differences between them. In discussion, only two opposite ends of the contradictory are argued. Whereas in opinion development, there are different points between two opposite ends like a fan. While discussion is lasted with only a certain group of students, the whole class can actively join into the opinion development. While the participants defend the same opinion up to the end, opinions may be changed in opinion development. There are "winner" and "loser" groups in discussion while there is no "winner", "loser", "correct defender" or "wrong defender" in opinion development (Gözütok, 2007;Sönmez, 2007;Taşpınar, 2012). Application steps of the Opinion Development Technique can shortly be summarized as follows (Erginer, 2015;Gözütok, 2007;Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu, 2015;Taşpınar, 2012): -On five different cartoons, it is written "absolutely agree", "agree", "indecisive", "don't agree" and "absolutely don't agree".
-These cartoons are stuck on the walls of the classroom from the most positive one to the most negative one at certain intervals.
-Suggestion is written on the board (it should be noticed that the suggestion include contradiction).
-Students are asked to what extent they agree on this suggestion. Students pass to sections where the cartoons determine their agreement degrees.
-Students are asked one by one why they are at the place where they are. Adequate evidence and justification is asked for defending the opinions.
-It is said that the student may go to somewhere else during the discussion by changing his/her opinion if he/she wants.
-The student changing his/her opinion is asked why he/she changed and to explain with the justifications.
-When it is decided that the subject has been discussed in detail, the discussion is terminated.
The Opinion Development Technique may have some explicit sides. Technique may take a long time. If the media is not managed effectively, the discussion may turn into a fight. It may be hard to apply in crowded groups (Taşpınar, 2012). Beside all its objections, the opinion development technique maintains students to respect various opinions and to have a democratic attitude. It helps to have different view-points and to look critically on the issues. It teaches that opinions may change by development of the critical approach. The interest onto the lesson increases thanks to discussion environment. The tolerance, bearing each other, speaking, persuasion and being open to change skills develop (Ocak, 2012;Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu, 2015;Taşpınar, 2012).
In spite of its so many positive sides, the studies carried out directly on the opinion development technique are limited. In Akkaya Yılmaz & Karakuş's (2018) study titled as "The Impact of Place Based Education Approach on Student Achievement in Social Studies", opinion development technique is given a place within the scope of the social sciences lesson. In Özdemir's (2018) study titled as "The Use of Idea Development and Speaking Circle Techniques in Teaching Turkish to Foreigners", it is dwelled on opinion development technique in the foreign language teaching. In Ocak & Yurtseven's (2017) study, opinion development technique has been applied in the Turkish Lesson at the primary school fourth-grade and then, the opinions of the primary school students devoted to this technique have been received. Even if it does not form the focal point of the researches, opinion development technique is told about in some studies dealing with the student centered methods and techniques. For instance, in Aykaç (2011) and Aykaç & Adıgüzel's (2011) studies, it is seen that the teachers haven't give place to opinion development technique in education process not all that. In Kubat's study (2016), it has been identified that the prospective teachers have never allowed the active teaching methods and techniques such as discussion method, problem solving method and opinion development technique happen during the teaching-learning process. In Uysal's PhD dissertation (2010), most of the teachers have found themselves adequate in applying the opinion development technique. Moreover, the better part of the teachers have expressed that they often used the opinion development. Yet, the mind-bender is that no class at which the opinion development technique has been applied according to the observation results of the researcher has been run across. In fact, these results show that the opinion development technique is not known and used enough at the educational environments. Whereas, Demirel (2012) says that the teachers' being selective about the methods and techniques can be possible only with their knowing and using various methods and techniques. So, it is important that the prospective teachers qualify about the methods and techniques at the teacher training and education institutions. For this reason, it is aimed to identify the metaphorical perceptions of prospective teachers about the opinion development technique. In this context, the following questions were asked: 1. What are the metaphors produced by the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique?
2. Under what conceptual categories are the produced metaphors gathered in terms of metaphorical aspects?

Method
The study has a descriptive qualification. It aims to put the current state forward as it is. The study is in the form of the case study of the qualitative research designs. In the case study, a phenomenon or event which the researcher cannot control is studied in detail on the basis of how and why questions (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). Certain application processes can be subjected to the case studies (Merriam, 2013). Also in this study, the opinion development technique has been applied and then, the perceptions about it have been tried to be described through metaphors. When metaphors are used with the purpose of description, a case, event or phenomenon is depicted as it is. Metaphors present a very firm and rich description about the studied case and give a visual image (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).

Study Group
85 prospective teachers getting education at the 2nd grade of the Primary School Teaching and Elementary Mathematics Teaching programs, Faculty of Education at a state university in Turkey in the 2018-2019 academic year are at the study group of the research. But, 8 of the prospective teachers who have joined in the study group have been qualified out of the group at the data analysis stage because they could not justify their metaphors understandably. Finally, 77 prospective teachers have formed the study group of the research. 40 of the 77 prospective teachers are at the Primary School Teaching program and 37 at the Elementary Mathematics Teaching program.
The prospective teachers have been selected through the criterion sampling which is one of the purposive samplings. In the criterion sampling, the criterion identified by the researcher or prepared before is based on, and the study group is determined due to the meeting this criteria (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). The basic criterion in this study is that the persons in the study group have studied the opinion development technique at the 2nd grade of the so-called programs and applied it at the Teaching Principles and Methods class. The purpose of selecting this criterion is to be able to achieve more qualitative data by benefitting from the knowledge and experience of the participants.

Data Collection Tool
In the study, a semi-structured questionnaire has been used as the data collection tool. In this questionnaire form, a question in the type of infill statement like "the opinion development technique is like ….. because …….." is available. With the word "like" in this statement, it has been tried to identify by which metaphor the perceptions of the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique are expressed. In the part continuing with "because", the justifications of the mentioned metaphors have tried to be learned.

Data Collection and Analysis
The research data have been collected just after the application of the opinion development technique at the Teaching Principles and Methods class. This period of time has been preferred in order to obtain more creative and fresh opinions in the realest and safest way from the prospective teachers. The prospective teachers have been informed about the questionnaire form, and sample metaphor statements have been presented by explaining particularly what the metaphor concept is and for what purpose it is used. The data has been analyzed by content analysis. The content analysis is to bring together the like data within the scope of specific concepts and categories and to interpret them for the reader to understand clearly by putting them in order (Ekici, 2016;Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).
At the data analysis stage, the questionnaire forms have firstly been controlled and eight of them have not been written understandably and whose justifications have not been presented have been excluded from the analysis. The rest of the questionnaire forms have been divided into two as the prospective primary school teachers and the prospective elementary mathematics teachers. By identifying PPST code for the prospective primary school teachers and PEMT code for the prospective elementary mathematics teachers, each group within itself has been assigned a number starting from 1. Thus, the forms of the prospective primary school teachers have respectively been named as PPST-1, PPST-2…PPST-40, and those of the prospective elementary mathematics teachers as PEMT-1, PEMT-2…PEMT-37. The metaphors at the numerated forms have been examined, and cognitive categories have been developed. The metaphors have been distributed according to the categories. The word cloud program (https://worditout.com) has been used for showing the metaphors with the word cloud. Some points have been noticed in order to increase the validity and reliability of the study. 1) The steps at the process of codifying and analyzing the data are explained in detail. 2) For each category, samples selected from the explanations of the prospective teachers have been presented at the findings. In other words, direct quotations are given.
3) The codes of the two researchers and the categories related to the codes have been compared with the aim of confirming whether metaphors which are given under the conceptual category represent the so-called conceptual categories. For this, it has been benefitted from Miles & Huberman's (1994) formula.

Results
In this section, all metaphors formed by the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique are presented together with their frequency values (f). Thereafter, the tables about the categories which are formed with reference to the metaphors are given. At these tables, metaphors, frequency values (f) and metaphorical aspects are explained. Metaphors related to the opinion development technique are grouped under eight categories. These categories are called dissimilarity (f:26), change (f:19), variety (f:11), interaction (f:6), integrity and comprehensiveness (f:5), eternity (f:4), freedom (f:4) and sharing (f:2). At Table 1, all metaphors formed about the opinion development technique are given. The category at which the most metaphors take place is the dissimilarity category. Generally, the existence of the different opinions is mentioned. 24 different metaphors have been produced by 26 prospective teachers. These metaphors are fingers of one hand, tree, and bee, humans from different races, night and day, matryoshka, violin, colorful knitting yarn, money, flower, pencil box, sea, pomegranate, book, garden, ashoura, science, rug, chameleon, war, brain box, food, rear -view mirror and ladder. When the metaphorical aspects at this category are looked over, particular importance is given to the concept "difference of opinions" which is the common trait of all metaphors. If it is studied more in detail; the emphasis is laid on respecting different opinions at the sea metaphor while collocation, richness and integrity of the different opinions are emphasized at the money, pencil box, garden, ashoura and food metaphors. Innovations are mentioned at the science metaphor. Some of the answers of the prospective teachers about the dissimilarity category are as; The opinion development technique is like the fingers of one hand because each opinion is different from others (PPST-10

PEMT-37). The opinion development technique is like rainbow because it houses various ideas (PPST-22). The opinion development technique is like tree because ideas branch out as it is in the opinion development technique, that is, they increase and variety increases (PPST-26). The opinion development technique is like Christmas lights because Christmas lights are lively and multicolored. Each idea presented with the opinion development technique is also lively and multicolored (PPST-33). The opinion development technique is like oil painting because it houses multicolored ideas in harmony (PPST-39).
The metaphors formed by the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique and being under the "Interaction" category are given at Table 5. At interaction category, six different metaphors have been produced by six prospective teachers. These metaphors are adolescence period, chameleon, mille-feuille pie, kite, war and labyrinth. At this category, statements about the interaction of the opinions from each other have generally taken place. For example, it has been stated that the opinions interact in order to refute each other at war metaphor, and that the opinions laminate with the interaction as the opinion development period progresses at the mille-feuille pie metaphor. However, in kite metaphor, the statement being affected from the ideas of others and passively being dispersed around these ideas has been used. Some of the answers of prospective teachers about the interaction category are as; the opinion development technique is like kite because we are dispersed around the opinion which is defended (PPST-8). The opinion development technique is like war because rivals bomb each other with their ideas in order to refute their opinions. They develop opposite opinions like a weapon (PPST-17). The metaphors formed by the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique and being under "Integrity and Comprehensiveness" category are given at Table 6.  In eternity category, four different metaphors have been developed by four prospective teachers. These metaphors are a vast sea, ocean, sky and space. In this category, metaphors about the opinions' not coming through and infinitely many opinions' being produced have been used. Some of the answers of prospective teachers about the Eternity Category are as; the opinion development technique is like a vast sea because there is no end of the opinions and no end can be achieved (PPST-1). The opinion development technique is like sky because our opinions are endless and vast as well as the sky (PPST-29). The opinion development technique is like space because ideas are endless (PPST-35). The metaphors formed by the prospective teachers about the opinion development technique and being under the "Sharing" category are given at Table 9.

Discussion
In this study, it has been aimed to identify the perceptions of prospective teachers about the opinion development technique which is one of the learner centered teaching techniques through metaphors. 77 prospective primary school and elementary mathematics teachers studying at the 2nd grade and applying the opinion development technique in class have participated into the study. In the sample selection, criterion sampling which is one of the purposive samplings has been selected. A questionnaire form which has a question in the type of infill statement like "the opinion development technique is like ….. because …….." has been used as a data collection tool. At the end of the study, 65 valid metaphors have been produced by the prospective teachers. Chameleon has been the most repeated metaphor. Tree, sea, fingers of one hand, democracy, plane, and war are the metaphors repeated more than once. These metaphors are shown in a larger font in the word cloud ( Figure 1). Metaphors have been gathered in eight categories by taking the like aspects into consideration. These categories are dissimilarity, change, variety, interaction, integrity and comprehensiveness, eternity, freedom and sharing. Dissimilarity is the category at which the most metaphors exist. Metaphors have been put forth about the diversity of opinions at the dissimilarity category, about the change of the opinions at the change category, about the existence of the various opinions at the variety category, about the interaction of the opinions at the interaction category, about the expansion of the view-point at the integrity and comprehensiveness category, about the production of many opinions at the eternity category, about the expression of the opinions freely at the freedom category and about the sharing of the opinions at the sharing category. These results are similar to the results of Ocak &Yurtseven's (2017) research results. The participants of Ocak &Yurtseven's (2017) study have stated that the opinion development technique has so many benefits as producing many ideas about an issue, expressing the ideas freely, and respecting the opinions of others. Research results support the current literature. The prospective teachers have pointed out having various view-points, being open to different opinions, the richness and integrity of various opinions. Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu (2015), Taşpınar (2012) and Ocak (2012) have also stated that opinion development technique maintains students to achieve different view-points, to be open to change, to respect various opinions and to acquire a democratic manner. In this respect, research results reflect the useful aspects of the opinion development technique. The metaphors produced with a similar expression show that the prospective teachers have positive perceptions about the opinion development technique. Also in Ocak &Yurtseven's (2017) study, students have stated positive opinions about the opinion development technique.
Research results suggest that opinion development technique can be effective to develop 21st century skills. 21st century skills have three basic skill areas as "Learning and Innovation skills", "Information, Media & Technology Skills" and "Life and Career Skills" (OECD, 2008;Lamb, Maire & Doecke, 2017). It is necessary for the students having the flexibility-adaptability skill from "life and career skills" to comply with the change, to understand various ideas and opinions and to have the balancing characteristics (Kylonen, 2012;Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2007;Trilling & Fadel, 2009). From this point of view, the emphasis of complying with the changing conditions and thoughts at the change category coincides with the Flexibility & Adaptability skill. The Creativity skill which is of the "Learning and Innovation" skills requires the use of forming an idea technique (like brainstorm), the creation of new and valuable ideas, the development of creative ideas, and the examination, analysis and evaluation of his/her own ideas in detail (OECD, 2008;Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2015;Trilling & Fadel, 2009). Therefore, it can be said that the usage of opinion development technique develops the Creativity skills of individuals. Particularly, the emphasis of the metaphors (tree, pomegranate, science, ladder and sea metaphors) at dissimilarity category about the innovation with the production of new opinions points out the creativity skill. Moreover, opinion development technique teaches that the opinions may change by development of critical approach (Ocak, 2012;Saracaloğlu & Küçükoğlu, 2015;Taşpınar, 2012). This knowledge can be interpreted as the opinion development technique is going to contribute the learners at the critical thinking point which is another Learning and Innovation skill.